Ovation Teas No More :(

GAH!!!!!!!
I was just about to do a review on Ovation Tea’s Custom Blend that I ordered awhile back which I LOVELOVELOVE and planned to reorder.
It appears that Ovation will be closing its virtual doors.
:(
If you want to get in on their sale they will have to liquidate their teas (no pun intended) then be sure to sign up for their email or contact them to get notified!

What a shame. I’ve been somewhat concerned that the purchase of Teavana by Starbucks and their planned expansion of shops, stores and sales in supermarkets might lead to a consolidation and closing of smaller online tea merchants with lower margins and volumes of sales. I hope Ovation’s closing is not a harbinger of that.

I doubt they’re connected. It’s sad, but tea shops close occasionally—it happened earlier this year with Element Tea. I think it’s bound to happen eventually since it’s a small market and it’s hard to find loyal customers.

increased cost of doing business =/= Starbucks opening and expanding (I would think maybe they weren’t doing so well either). And if anything, I doubt Starbucks’ expansion and changes to Teavana are going to really hurt online shops. I don’t see anyone here deciding they’re not going to order online anymore just because Tazo has loose leaf tea nearby. Bleh. And perhaps that will lead others to wonder, hey, is there better stuff out there? It’s worked damn well for coffee. Sorry if this sounds like NO YOU’RE WRONG!!! but there really shouldn’t be anything to worry about, stores come and go sadly.

momo, I’m not in the business, but I daresay that many online tea companies are relative recent start-ups or small operations which just got by as budding businesses hoping that increased consumption of tea in the US would lead to greater business and volume for them in the future. The looming greater presence of Starvana in local stores and supermarkets as well as online, together with the lower costs it can take advantage of and wider volume buys from sellers can potentially sap a lot of the lower but more profitable end of the business and make smaller volume buyers pay more for product.

It certainly happened in the bookstore business, in the toy business and many others. I do hope it doesn’t happen. Maybe greater tea consumption and popularity will lead to greater sales for all and there will be enough business overall so that the Behemoth leaves a niche for many smaller quality sellers. But that very much remains to be seen.

If you look…they have moved all inventory to the “liquidation Sale” tab and the price are crazy cheap. I just got a pound of Phoenix Jasmine Pearls, 1/4 lb of matcha, and 1/2 lb of King of Silver Needles White Tea for under $40. That should keep me floating in tea for a long time lol

Are they only selling it by the pound? That’s kind of a bummer, I was hoping to get a few ounces of several different blends. Might have to settle for just the raspberry EG but I definitely do NOT need a whole pound haha